The Sixty-ninth Ganden Tripa, Jangchub Chopel. Image credit: himalayanart.org. Click on image to enlarge.

དགའ་ལྡན་ཁྲི་པ ༦༩ བྱང་ཆུབ་ཆོས་འཕེལ།

b.1756 – d.1838

Incarnations: Trijang ཁྲི་བྱང།
Tradition: Geluk དགེ་ལུགས།
Geography: Litang ལི་ཐང།
Historical Period: 18^th Century ༡༨ དུས་རབས། / 19^th Century ༡༩ དུས་རབས།
Institution: Ganden དགའ་ལྡན་།; Gyuto Dratsang རྒྱུད་སྟོད་གྲྭ་ཚང།; Ganden Shartse College དགའ་ལྡན་ཤར་རྩེ་གྲྭ་ཚང།
Offices Held: Sixty-ninth Ganden Tripa of Ganden; Abbot of Gyuto Dratsang
Name Variants: Chatreng Jangchub Chophel ཆ་ཕྲེང་བྱང་ཆུབ་ཆོས་འཕེལ།; Ganden Trichen 69 Jangchub Chopel དགའ་ལྡན་ཁྲི་ཆེན ༦༩ བྱང་ཆུབ་ཆོས་འཕེལ།; Ganden Tripa 69 Jangchub Chopel དགའ་ལྡན་ཁྲི་པ ༦༩ བྱང་ཆུབ་ཆོས་འཕེལ།; Jangchub Chopel བྱང་ཆུབ་ཆོས་འཕེལ།; Powor Jangchub Chopel སྤོ་འབོར་བྱང་ཆུབ་ཆོས་འཕེལ།; Shartse Jangchub Chopel ཤར་རྩེ་བྱང་ཆུབ་ཆོས་འཕེལ།; Trichen Jangchub Chopel Pelzangpo ཁྲི་ཆེན་བྱང་ཆུབ་ཆོས་འཕེལ་དཔལ་བཟང་པོ།

The Sixty-ninth Ganden Tripa, Jangchub Chopel (dga’ lhan khri pa 69 byang chub chos ‘phel) was born in Litang (li thang) in Kham in the fire-hare year of the thirteenth sexagenary cycle, in 1756. His father was called Tashi (bkra shis) and the mother was named Mamo Tso (ma mo mtsho).

At the age of twelve, his crown-hair was cut by Lama Dongnak (bla ma gdong nag) of Sampel Ling Monastery (bsam ‘phel gling dgon pa) who gave him the name Jangchub Chopel. For the next eight years, according to his parents’ instruction, he spent winters in the monastery studying but worked as a shepherd during the summers in Rutok (ru thog). While rearing the animals he read the Vajracchedika Prajnaparamita Sutra daily and gradually learned it by heart.

At the age of fourteen, in 1769, he was granted the vows of upasaka, (dge bsnyen) primary-ordination (rab byung), and novice monk (dge tshul; sramanera) by Lama Konchok Chopel (bla ma dkon mchog chos ‘phel, d.u.), who performed as the abbot and was assisted by Geshe Rinchen Zangpo (dge bshes rin chen bzang po, d.u.) at Sampel Ling Monastery.

In 1776, at the age of twenty-one, Jangchub Chopel travelled to U and matriculated in the Dokang House of Shartse College of the Ganden Monastic University (dga’ shar rdo khang khang tshan) where he studied the philosophical texts of Geluk curriculum and later obtained the title of Kachupa (dka’ bcu pa) at Sangpu (gsang phu). Subsequently he returned to Ganden Monastery and further studied under a number of scholars including Shartse Khenpo Chowang Gyatso (shar rtse mkhan po chos dbang rgya mtsho, d.u.) and Geshe Sanggye Gyatso (dge bshes sangs rgyas rgya mtsho, d.u.). Despite living in considerable poverty, at the age of twenty-three he took a traditional test on Pramanavarttika in the monastery that drew attention of many scholars for his acumen in debate.

Ganden Monastery. Image credit: Treasury of Lives. Click on image to enlarge.

At the age of twenty-four, in 1779 Jangchub Chopel received the vows of full ordination (dge slong; bhiksu) from the Sixth Panchen Lama, Lobzang Pelden Yeshe (paN chen bla ma 03 blo bzang dpal ldan ye shes, 1738-1780). Subsequently he received many teachings from numerous scholars and prominent lamas including Ngawang Tsultrim (dga’ ldan khri pa 61 tshe smon gling ngag dbang tshul khrims), who later became the Sixty-first Ganden Tripa; Longdol Lama Ngawang Lobzang (klong rdol bla ma rin po che ngag dbang blo bzang, 1719-1794), and Yongdzin Yeshe Gyeltsen (yongs dzin ye shes rgyal mtshan, 1713-1793), one of the most important Geluk teachers of the eighteenth century who founded Tsechokling monastery near Lhasa. At the age of thirty-seven, in 1792, he stood for the traditional examination of Geshe Lharampa during the annual Great Prayer Festival of the year in Lhasa and obtained the Lharampa title, the highest degree in the Geluk tradition of Tibetan Buddhism.

H.H the 6th Panchen Lama, Tubten Chokyi Nyima. Image credit: himalayanart.org. Click on image to enlarge.

Jangchub Chopel joined Gyuto College (rgyud stod grwa tshang) the same year for studies in Tantra. There he studied all the four classes of tantra as classified by the Geluk tradition, studying particularly the Guhyasamaja, which became the basis for his personal practice. He also received a wide range of commentarial teachings, empowerments, esoteric instructions, and transmissions on such as Atisa‘s Bodhipathapradipa (byang chub lam sgron), the Sixth Panchen Lama’s Myur Lam (myur lam), or Swift Path, and Guhyasamaja, Cakrasamvara, and Yamantaka, and so forth from a number of outstanding teachers that included Sharchen Ngawang Tashi (shar chen ngag dbang bkra shis, d.u.); Gendun Tsultrim (dga’ ldan khri pa 65 khri chen dge ‘dun tshul khrims, 1744-1807), who later became the Sixty-fifth Ganden Tripa; Sharpa Lobzang Tenpa (shar pa blo bzang bstan pa, d.u.), Gungru Lobzang Dondrub (gung ru blo bzang don grub, d.u.), and Khenpo Lobzang Tukje (mkhan po blo bzang thugs rje, d.u.).

Jangchub Chopel served as the disciplinarian for the Winter Session that was participated by monks from the three main Geluk monasteries around Lhasa. At the age of forty-four in 1799 he was appointed as the chant leader (bla ma dbu mdzad) of Gyuto College, taking control of education there, and soon made abbot of the same college. After ten years, eight of which he lived at the Panglung Hermitage (spang lung ri khrod) engaging in his personal practices, in 1809, at the age of fifty-four, he was enthroned to the seat of Sharpa Choje (shar pa chos rje), placing him in line to ascend to the Golden Throne of Ganden from Shartse side. In 1811 Jangchub Chopel was appointed as the tutor to the Ninth Dalai Lama Lungtok Gyatso (ta la’i bla ma 09, lung rtogs rgya mtsho, 1805-1815).

In January/February 1816, the twelfth month of fire-mouse year of the fourteenth sexagenary cycle, at the age of sixty, Jangchub Chopel was enthroned as the Sixty-ninth Ganden Tripa, only a few weeks before the annual Lhasa Monlam Chenmo. Some sources have it that his enthronement was in 1815, the wood-pig year of the fourteenth sexagenary cycle, but given that Trichen Lobzang Gelek, the previous Ganden Tripa (dga’ ldan khri pa 68 khri chen blo bzang dge legs, 1757-1816), was enthroned in 1815 and served for about a year, the enthronement of Trichen Jangchub Chopel in the year 1816 seems to be correct.

Jangchub Chopel served as Ganden Tripa for seven years, from 1816 to 1822, during which he gave traditional teachings and led the important religious programs of the Geluk tradition, including those that occur during the annual Lhasa Monlam Chenmo that was held for twenty-one days in the first month of Tibetan calendar. During his tenure he served as tutor to the Tenth Dalai Lama Tsultrim Gyatso (ta la’i bla ma 10 tshul khrims rgya mtsho, 1816-1837). He also sponsored and commissioned a large quantity of objects of faith. He retired from the Golden Throne in 1822, after the customary seven years of his tenure was completed.

Ngawang Chopel (dga’ lhan khri pa 70 ngag dbang chos ‘phel, 1760-1839) who was born in Damzhung (’dam gzhung) in 1760 in U region succeeded him.

H.H the 10th Dalai Lama, Tsultrim Gyatso. Image credit: himalayanart.org. Click on image to enlarge.

Following his retirement Jangchub Chopel settled at Chubzang Hermitage (chu bzang ri khrod) for personal practices, and he gave teachings to his many disciples. He also built statues of Tsongkhapa and his main immediate disciples.

Among his disciples were Oro Zhabdrung Lobzang Tenpai Gyeltsen (o rod zhabs drung blo bzang bstan pa’i rgyal mtshan, b. 1819); Yeshe Dondrub Tenpai Gyeltsen (ye shes don grub bstan pa’i rgyal mtshan, 1796-1855); Takpu Yongdzin Yeshe Gyatso (stag phu yongs ‘dzin ye shes rgya mtsho, 1789-1856); the Third Rongta Chetsang, Lobzang Tenpai Gyeltsen (rong tha che tshang 03 blo bzang bstan pa’i rgyal mtshan, 1782-1857); Urge Khenpo Tobden Rabjam (u rge mkhan po stobs ldan rab ‘byams, b.1813); and the Seventh Kirti Kunga Chopak Tubten Nyima (kirti 07 kun dga’ chos ‘phags thub bstan nyi ma, 1797-1848).

Jangchub Chopel passed into nirvana after about seventeen years following his retirement, at the age of eighty-three in 1838, the earth-dog year of the fourteenth sexagenary cycle. A traditional cremation was done with traditional rites and rituals, and nirvana-prayers were done extensively.

Lobzang Tsultrim Pelden, (blo bzang tshul khrims dpal ldan, 1839-1900), who served as the Eighty-fifth Ganden Tripa, was recognized as the reincarnation of Jangchub Chopel, and took the title of Trijang Rinpoche (khri byang rin po che). The Third Trijang, Lobzang Yeshe Tendzin Gyatso (khri byang 03 blo bzang ye shes bstan ‘dzin rgya mtsho, 1901-1981) was the junior tutor to the Fourteenth Dalai Lama.

Teachers

• ye shes rgyal mtshan ཡེ་ཤེས་རྒྱལ་མཚན། b.1713 – d.1793
• ngag dbang chos ‘dzin ངག་དབང་ཆོས་འཛིན།
• The Sixth Panchen Lama, dpal ldan ye shes པཎ་ཆེན་བླ་མ ༠༦ དཔལ་ལྡན་ཡེ་ཤེས། b.1738 – d.1780
• rgya mtsho mtha’ yas རྒྱ་མཚོ་མཐའ་ཡས།
• blo bzang thugs rje བློ་བཟང་ཐུགས་རྗེ།
• Longdol Lama Ngawang Lobzang ཀློང་རྡོལ་བླ་མ་ངག་དབང་བློ་བཟང། b.1719 – d.1794
• gdong nag pa གདོང་ནག་པ།
• dkon mchog chos ‘phel དཀོན་མཆོག་ཆོས་འཕེལ།
• rin chen bzang po རིན་ཆེན་བཟང་པོ།
• blo bzang sbyin pa བློ་བཟང་སྦྱིན་པ།
• The Sixty-First Ganden Tripa, Ngawang Tsultrim དགའ་ལྡན་ཁྲི་པ ༦༡ ངག་དབང་ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས། b.1721 – d.1791

Students

• The Seventh Kirti, Kunga Chopak Tubten Nyima ཀིརྟི ༠༧ ཀུན་དགའ་ཆོས་འཕགས་ཐུབ་བསྟན་ཉི་མ། b.1797 – d.1848
• blo bzang bstan pa’i rgyal mtshan བློ་བཟང་བསྟན་པའི་རྒྱལ་མཚན། b.1819? – d.1871
• Ngawang Yeshe Tubten ངག་དབང་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཐུབ་བསྟན། b.1807?/1815 – d.1889/1897
• The Ninth Dalai Lama, Lungtok Gyatso ཏ་ལའི་བླ་མ ༠༩ ལུང་རྟོགས་རྒྱ་མཚོ། b.1805 – d.1815
• ye shes don grub bstan pa’i rgyal mtshan ཡེ་ཤེས་དོན་གྲུབ་བསྟན་པའི་རྒྱལ་མཚན། b.1792 – d.1855
• ye shes rgya mtsho ཡེ་ཤེས་རྒྱ་མཚོ། b.1789 – d.1856
• grags pa brtson ‘grus གྲགས་པ་བརྩོན་འགྲུས།
• blo bzang tshul khrims bstan pa’i rgyal mtshan བློ་བཟང་ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་བསྟན་པའི་རྒྱལ་མཚན།
• blo bzang bstan pa’i rgyal mtshan བློ་བཟང་བསྟན་པའི་རྒྱལ་མཚན། b.1782 – d.1857
• stobs ldan rab ‘byams སྟོབས་ལྡན་རབ་འབྱམས། b.1813
• The Seventy-Fourth Ganden Tripa, Lobzang Lhundrub དགའ་ལྡན་ཁྲི་པ ༧༤ བློ་བཟང་འརྣམ་རྒྱལ་བསྟན་འཛིན་ལྷུན་གྲུབ། b.1782 – d.1847

Subsequent Incarnations

• The Second Trijang, Lobzang Tsultrim Pelden ཁྲི་བྱང ༠༢ བློ་བཟང་ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་དཔལ་ལྡན། b.1839?/1836 – d.1900

Bibliography

• Don rdor and Bstan ‘dzin chos grags. 1993. Gangs ljongs lo rgyus thog gig rags can mi sna. Lhasa: Bod ljongs mi dmangs dpe skrun khang, pp. 824-826.
• Grags pa ‘byungs gnas and Blo bzang mkhas grub. 1992. Gangs can mkhas sgrub rim byon ming mdzod. Lanzhou: Kan su’u mi rigs dpe skrun khang, pp. 1018-1821.
• Bstan pa bstan ‘dzin. 1992. ‘Jam mgon rgyal wa’i rgyal tshab gser khri rim byon rnams kyi khri rabs yongs ‘du’i ljon bzang. Mundgod: Drepung Gomang Library, pp.103-104.
• Grong khyer lha sa srid gros lo rgyus rig gnas dpyad yig rgyu cha rtsom ‘bri au yon lhan khang. 1994. Dga’ ldan dgon pa dang brag yer pa’i lo rgyus, grong khyer lha sa’i lo rgyus rig gnas deb 02. Lhasa: Bod ljongs shin hwa par ‘debs bzo grwa khang, pp. 74.

Source: Samten Chhosphel, “The Sixty-Ninth Ganden Tripa, Jangchub Chopel,” Treasury of Lives, accessed July 17, 2018, http://treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/Trichen-69-Jangchub-Chophel/5371.

Samten Chhosphel is an independent scholar with PhD from the Central University of Tibetan Studies (CUTS) at Sarnath, Varanasi, India. He has a Master’s degree in Writing and Publishing from Emerson College, Boston, MA. After serving as the In-charge of Publication Department of CUTS for 26 years, he immigrated to the United States in 2009 and is currently an adjunct Assistant Professor at the City University of New York, and Language Associate in Columbia University.

Published February 1816

Disclaimer: All rights are reserved by the author. The article is reproduced here for educational purposes only.

Source: https://treasuryoflives.org/en/biographies/view/biography/5371. Click on image to enlarge.

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• The Dorje Shugden category on my blog
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• His Holiness the 101st Gaden Tripa Rinpoche
• The Courage and Purity of H.H. the 101st Gaden Trisur Rinpoche
• H.H. the 101st Gaden Trisur Rinpoche’s Vajrayogini Teachings and Text
• The Thirty-Fifth Ganden Tripa, Konchok Chopel
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• The Thirtieth Ganden Tripa, Lodro Gyatso

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